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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, January 26, 2001

Aloha Air adds staff for Las Vegas service

Aloha Airlines said it has hired 56 pilots and 80 flight attendants for its new Las Vegas service, which will start Feb. 14. An extension of its existing Hawaii-Oakland routes, the new service will provide one daily Honolulu-Oakland-Las Vegas flight and a daily Kahului-Oakland-Las Vegas service.

Aloha has said the Oakland flights it began last February have been attracting strong business.

Earlier this month, Aloha cut back its interisland flights by 8 percent and laid off 15 workers. The cut did not involve any pilots or flight attendants.

Calif. tourism push pays off for Hawaii

A two-week "Aloha Southern California" promotion in August 1998 generated 156,000 trips to Hawaii and resulted in nearly $240 million in visitor spending, according to an impact study by an independent research firm, Longwoods International. The Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau campaign included TV and print advertising, public events and promotions and public relations activity that generated news media coverage. Earlier research showed that 3.9 million potential travelers living in Los Angeles and Orange County were aware of at least one aspect of the campaign.

WorldCom may cut work force by 15%

CLINTON, Miss. -- WorldCom Inc., the second-largest U.S. long-distance phone firm, may lay off as many as 11,550 employees, or 15 percent of its work force, people familiar with the matter said. The firm may need to take a charge of as much as $866 million to cover the cuts, based on figures from some telecommunications analysts, who estimate it costs about $75,000 to shed one employee. The cuts, reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier, could come in the next several weeks.

In other news . . .

CAMPBELL, Calif. -- PMC-Sierra Inc. shares fell 23 percent after the firm said revenue will plunge by about 25 percent in the first quarter from the fourth as customers buy fewer of its communications chips. The shares tumbled $21.88 to $74 on the Nasdaq. PMC-Sierra has fallen 71 percent from a record $255.50 on March 10.